The present invention relates to apparatus for closing the toe ends of stockings, and more particularly to apparatus that automatically supports and transfers stocking toe ends to and through a toe end seaming operation.
Many attempts have been made to provide apparatus useful for stocking toe closing without satisfactory success. A typical example of such prior art apparatus is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,294, which discloses indexing turning tubes on which stockings are supported for manual spreading and positioning of stocking toe ends from the turning tubes onto a thin flat carrier that moves the spread toe end into a clamp that clamps both the spread toe end and the carrier and from which the carrier is withdrawn, leaving the spread toe end in the clamp with its extremity outside the clamp for feeding through an adjacent sewing machine upon rotation of the clamp. In other forms of prior art apparatus of this type the turning tubes or other supports for stockings are advanced directly into clamps, which clamp both the stocking and support and from which the support is withdrawn while the clamp retains the stocking in as accurate a position as possible for seaming. An example of the latter type of apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,069, which discloses spreading elements within the stocking support member and operable to expand and spread a supported stocking toe end for clamping.
In all of the prior apparatus that mechanically positions the stocking toe ends in clamps rather than this being done manually, the apparatus requires positioning of the carrier, spreading means or end of the stocking support within the clamp and it is necessary to withdraw the carrier, spreader or support end from the clamp while leaving the stocking toe end in place. This provides problems of mechanical construction and operation, difficulty in controlling and maintaining control of the position of the stocking toe end when the carrier, spreader or support end is removed from the clamp. Further, the prior apparatus requires either manual spreading of the stocking toe ends or a complicated spreading mechanism incorporated in the stocking tube or support.
In contrast, the toe end closing apparatus of the present invention provides a relatively simple means of spreading the toe end and locating it suitably in the clamp, the spreading means is not clamped within the toe end and the possibility of poor positioning of the toe end and of damage thereto is thereby eliminated, and once the operator has positioned the toe end suitably on the stocking support, the whole operation is automatic, resulting in significant labor savings.
In addition, novel means is provided for restraining the stockings from slipping off the supports during the clamping and seaming operations.
Further, the present invention includes means for directing a stream of air onto the full width of the toe end extremity extending beyond the clamp, for directing the extremity into the seaming means, and this airstream is advantageously derived in the interest of energy efficiency from the exhaust produced by the suction means otherwise provided for everting stockings on the stocking supports.